Air, Water, and Food

     This summer, thousands of acres of forest and land have burned in Buryatia.  I took this picture from our balcony one morning.  The air was so smokey that it was hard to see the next building.

     Then we had a couple of good rains!  One week later, at the same time of morning (give or take a few minutes), I took this picture.  What a difference!  How wonderful to breathe in fresh air.

Leif and Ike, waiting in line for water from this blessed truck.

     There was some sort of accident at a local factory recently, and all of the water in our region was shut off.   It had been off all day, and we didn't know how long it would be off.  Leif took some buckets to a local well/pump, and it was out of water.  We went to stores, and I was able to buy 2 small bottles (like 12 oz. size), but that's it!  Later that evening Anneka looked outside and saw this water truck.  She was SO excited because she'd just been reading about the Great San Fransisco Earthquake and how the people had had trucks just like this one to get water at that time.  We gladly went outside with our buckets.  Water is another wonderful thing!

      ... And now it is potato season.  I still haven't gotten totally used to how BIG of a deal potatoes are here!  People's lives revolve a lot around potatoes.  This big truck was delivering huge bags of potatoes to people in our building.  Most people have access to home grown potatoes from their own private garden plot or from family.  Potatoes get them through the winter.  I prepare potatoes a lot more often here than when we're in the States, but even still, it's only like once a week.   I would guess that most Russian people have potatoes in some form at least once a day.